


Sacrifice

by talefeathers



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Forever Evil (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Canon Rewrite, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Scene Rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2019-10-04 08:31:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17301314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: Dick Grayson is locked into a machine that was designed to destroy Doomsday - and may well destroy the Earth. There's only one way to disarm the machine and save the planet, but can Bruce allow it, or is this sacrifice too great for him to bear?





	Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> I put my spin on the Murder Machine scene from Forever Evil #6, because Why Not. I want to disclaim that this is all from memory; I haven't read Forever Evil in over two years, so I apologize in advance if the details aren't all there! Have fun!

“You know what we have to do, Batman,” Lex Luthor tells him.

Bruce Wayne stands between the criminal mastermind and the menacing contraption that now has Dick Grayson locked into it, bruised, unmasked and barely conscious. A timer on Dick’s chest clicks down with every beat of a heart monitor just below, punctuating the tension in the room with steady, rhythmic beeping. Bruce doesn’t move.

“With each new beat of his heart, that machine comes one second closer to detonating,” Luthor explains. “It was designed to destroy Doomsday; if it detonates on the Earth’s surface, the results will be catastrophic.”

“There’s another way to disarm it,” Bruce insists. “There has to be.”

“If there were, I would have discovered it by now,” Luthor says. There is no brag in his voice, no scoff, for once. There is only cool reason. Again, he says, “You know what we have to do.”

Again, Bruce does not move.

“There’s. Another. Way.”

“B… Batman.”

The voice is so faint Bruce almost thinks he’s imagined it, but when he turns around Dick has lifted his head from his chest to look at him.

“He’s… right,” Dick says. “Look… it’s okay… It’s okay, just…”

“Don’t say that,” Bruce snarls, the slightest hitch in his voice.

Luthor glances at the timer on Dick’s chest. He huffs a sigh and shakes his head.

“Even if there were another way to disarm this machine,” he says, “we no longer have the time to find out.”

With that, he motions toward Bizarro, who launches himself at Bruce with superhuman speed. Bruce is only beginning to react when the superman wraps his arms around him and holds fast, pulling him back and away from the Murder Machine.

“Luthor!” Bruce roars, struggling furiously against Bizarro’s crushing embrace.

“It’s okay,” Dick says again as Luthor approaches him and removes a pill from a compartment on his suit. “It’s okay.”

“Dick!” 

Panic ignites Bruce’s every cell; adrenaline screams uselessly through his veins. He is as weak and as frightened and as infuriatingly human as he is in each one of his nightmares.

Luthor stands in front of Dick, pill in hand, and Dick meets his eyes without fear. He was always so brave, so much braver than Bruce has ever been –

“You won’t feel any pain,” Bruce hears Luthor murmur.

Dick only nods.

Luthor puts the pill in Dick’s mouth, like a priest giving communion. Dick bites down on the capsule.

The beeping immediately begins to slow.

“ _NO!_ ”

Luthor turns to give Bizarro a tight nod. Bizarro releases Bruce, who lurches forward. He lifts Dick’s head in his hands, tries to meet blue eyes that won’t focus.

“Look at me,” he says. “Look at me. You’re alright; you’re going to be alright…”

The beeping flattens into a high whine. The timer stops counting; the detonator powers down. Dick’s eyes have fallen shut, and his head is heavy in his father’s hands.

For the first time in Bruce Wayne’s life, the fight goes out of him. He sinks to his knees, and he doesn’t rise for a long, long time.


End file.
